Senate sends $1.1 trillion spending bill to Trump

The House is scheduled to vote on the bipartisan $1.1 trillion measure Wednesday afternoon.

If Republicans can manage to get to that point, they are hoping to pass the bill through reconciliation so that they can get it through without any Democratic buy in.

The Senate is on track to deliver President Donald Trump the first significant legislation of his presidency.

The measure is the product of a bipartisan culture among Congress' appropriators, with money for foreign aid, grants to state and local governments and protection for the Environmental Protection Agency from cuts sought by tea party Republicans. John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to reporters.

Now that the House has passed the bill, Trump stated he is confident the Senate will pass the bill, too. Leaders rallied rank-and-file lawmakers at a closed-door meeting early Thursday by playing "Eye of the Tiger", the rousing 1980s song from the "Rocky III" film.

They needed the first tax cut so they could pass both bills through a process called "reconciliation" which allows them to enact both massive gifts to the 1 percent by a simple majority in the Senate without the 60-vote threshold in the Senate for other legislation.

Schumer said that if congressional leaders "work as well on the 2018 budget as we did on the 2017 budget, we will have a product we can be proud of with no worries about any kind of government shutdown".

"This bill is far from ideal, but it's better than how we are spending our money today, better than how we were spending our money a year ago", the Republican senator Roy Blunt said on the Senate floor. "You will glow in the dark on this one".

The deal, which keeps federal operations running through the end of the fiscal year on September 30, was struck after weeks of tense negotiations.

A crackdown on states such as Colorado that have legalized medical marijuana remains possible despite a provision in the $1 trillion spending bill President Donald Trump signed on Friday barring the use of federal money for enforcement.

He said: "Thank you Mr Trump for admitting that universal health care is the better way to go".

He abandoned a second attempt for a vote last week.

The House measure collapsed in March due to opposition by conservative and moderate GOP lawmakers. He promised that premiums and deductibles will come down under the AHCA. With waivers, insurers could charge people with pre-existing illnesses far higher rates than healthy customers, boost prices for older consumers to whatever they wish and ignore the mandate that they cover specified services like pregnancy care. The spending bill continues funding for Obamacare as well as Planned Parenthood, a women's health organization that performs abortions.

Brown says millions would lose coverage under the bill.

"The true effects of the bill could be anything", he said.

"After years of partisan bickering and gridlock, this bill is a clear win for the American people", Trump said Tuesday from the Oval Office. The House voted without a CBO estimate for the latest version of their bill.

"It's imperative to note what this bill does not contain", said Rep. Nita Lowey of NY, lead negotiator for Democrats. Republicans hypocritically jammed the bill through the House before members could read it or it could be given a price tag. He said he was proud to have a small part in bringing affordable health care to Americans.